
Glass _£liL4 

Book Mjik 



« 



i 



I 



ORATION 



DELIVERED ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1826, 



AT NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 




GEORGE l^ANCROFT. 



NORTHAMPTON, 

T. WATSON SHEPARD, PRINTER. 

1826. 






i 



#r^ltiiw. 



Our act of celebration begins with God. To the 
eternal Providence, on which states depend, and 
by whose infinite mercy they are prospered, the 
nation brings its homage and the tribute of its 
gratitude. From the omnipotent Power, who 
dwells in the unclouded serenity of being with- 
out variableness or shadow of change, we proceed 
as from the Fountain of good, the Author of hope, 
and the Source of order and justice, now that we 
assemble to commemorate the revolution, the in- 
dependence, and the advancement of our countr}^ 
No sentiments should be encouraged on this 
occasion, but those of patriotism and philanthropy. 
When the names of our venerated Fathers were 
affixed to the instrument which declared our in- 
dependence, an impulse and confidence were im- 
parted to all efforts at improvement throughout 
the world. The festival which we keep is the 
festival of freedom itself ; it belongs not to us only, 
but to man ; all the nations of the earth have an 
interest in it, and humanity proclaims it sacred. 
In the name of liberty, therefore, I bid you wel- 
come to the celebration of its jubilee ; in the 



name of our country I bid you welcome to the 
recollection of its glories and joy in its prosperity ; 
in the name of humanity I welcome j^ou to a fes- 
tival, which commemorates an improvement in the 
social condition ; in the name of religion I wel- 
come you to a profession of the principles of pub- 
lic justice, which emanate directly from God. 

These principles are eternal, not only in their 
truth, but in their efficacy. The world has never 
been entirely without witnesses to them ; they 
have been safely transmitted through the succes- 
sion of generations ; they have survived the revo- 
lutions of individual states ; and.their final success 
has never been despaired of Liberty has its foun- 
dation in human nature ; and some portion of it 
exists, wherever there is a sense of honor. Are 
proofs of its existence demanded ? As the mixture 
of good and evil is the condition of our earthly 
being, the efficient agency of good must be sought 
for even in the midst of evil ; the impulse of free 
spirits is felt in every state of society and in spite 
of all constraint. There may have been periods 
in whi<;h the human mind has sunk into slothful 
indifference ; the arm of exertion been paralyzed ; 
and every noble aspiration hushed in the tranquil- 
lity of universal submission. But even in such 
periods the world has never been left utterly with- 
out hope ; and when the breath of tyranny has 
most effectually concealed the sun of liberty, and 
shrouded in darkness the magnificence of his 
beams, it has been but for a season. 

Tomorrow he repairs the golden flood, 
And gilds the nations with redoubled ray. 



Nature concedes to every people the right ol 
exf cuting whatever plans they may devise for 
their improvement, and the right of maintaining 
their independence. Of the exercise of these 
rights there have always been examples. The 
innate iove of national liberty proceeds from an 
impulse and waits only for an opportunity to de- 
monstrate its power. It has aroused the brave 
and generous from the first periods of history to 
the present moment, and has been a principle of 
action under evpry form of government ; it was 
this, which made Marathon the watch-word of 
those who fight for their country ; this pointed the 
arrows of the Parthian ; this lent an air of romance 
to the early histor}'^ of the. Swiss and gained the 
battles of Morgarten and Sempach ; this inspirited 
the Dutch, when their freedom was endangered 
by the arms of Louis XIV, and could be secured 
by no smaller sacrifice, to lay the soil of Holland 
beneath the ocean ; this blessed the banners that 
waved on Bunker Hill and canonized the memory 
of those who fell as the elect martyrs and wit- 
nesses to their country's independence ; this made 
the French repubUc invincible when it stood alone 
against the world ; this, which formerly at Pultowa 
had taught the Russians to fight, sacrificed Mos- 
cow, a splendid victim, on the altar of national ex- 
istence ; this united the mangled limbs of Germa- 
ny, breathed a spirit once more into the long di- 
vided members, and led them against the French, 
as if impelled by the throbbings of one mighty 
heart. What need of many words ? This made 
New Orleans a place of proud recollections, and 



still more recently has raised its boldest standard 
under the Southern sky, and finished a career of 
victory in the field of Ayacucho. 

The exercise of free principles in the internal 
improvement of states is more difficult and more 
, rare ; for it requires the continued efforts of pru- 
dence, favored by the possession of power; a clear 
insight into the relations and wants of social life; 
an enlightened age and a persevering policy. Yet 
almost the first demand of civilized man has been 
a legislation, founded on the principles of justice; 
and the Roman law is still in force as the guaran' 
tee of private possessions in many of the most des- 
potic countries of Europe. Some fixed constitu- 
tion men have always claimed; and wherever 
codes have been established, their tendency has 
been favorable to- individual rights, personal secu- 
rity, and intellectual liberty. 

The general sentiment of mankind is expressed 
by the master spirits in the works, which are as 
monuments of the knowledge and aspirations of 
departed ages. Here there exists no difference of 
feeling; liberty may have been contemplated un- 
der different aspects, but honor has never been 
refused to the celestial visitant. Milton, than whom 
no man ever enjoyed clearer revelations of the 
light of poetry, appeals to the greatest bards, from 
the first to his own time, as the lovers and eulo- 
gists of liberty. Do you ask after the reasonings 
of mankind ? To the contemplative man there is 
no equivalent for freedom of thought and expres- 
sion ; freedom to follow the guidance of reason 
wherever she may lead; freedom to make an open 



profession of all deliberate convictions. The his- 
torians, the orators, the philosophers, are the nat- 
ural advocates of civil liberty. From all countries 
and all ages we have the same testimony ; it is the 
chorus of the whole family of nations. 

The events of the last fifty years lead us to 
hope, that liberty, so long militant, is at length 
triumphant. From our own revolution the period 
derives its character. As on the morning of the 
nativity the astonished wizards hastened with 
sweet odors on the Eastern road, our government 
had hardly come into being and the star of liberty 
shed over us its benignant light, before the nations 
began to follow its guidance and do homage to its 
beauty. The French revolution followed our own ; 
and new principles of action were introduced into 
the politics of Europe. The melancholy events, 
which ensued, must be carefully distinguished from 
the origmal resistance to unlimited monarchy. 
The evils, which resulted from anarchy in the 
royal councils, should not be referred to the influ- 
ence of national principles. The popular effort, 
which abolished the system of absolute rule and 
feudal subjection, which maintained the equal 
rights of man, which reclaimed the sovereign 
power for the people and established the respon- 
sibility of all public officers, a revolution which at 
once annihilated the distinctions of birth and gave 
a free course to the principles of liberty, to indus- 
try, and to truth, was worthy of the enthusiasm 
which it excited in the lovers of freedom. The 
representatives of the people were true, while the 
nobles were false and the king prevaricated ; and, 



8 

but for the coalition of the foreign powers against 
France, there is reason to believe the French rev- 
olution would have been consummated with so 
much order and followed by so much prosperity 
and happiness, that the neighboring nations must 
have been incited to imitate the example and 
peacefully reform their institutions. 

The wars which followed were not without 
their use ; for though they were conducted by an 
exasperated nation, whose generous passion for 
liberty had become a frenzy, the armies of the 
republic were still arrayed against tyranny. The 
torch of freedom was in their hands, though it had 
been seized with profane recklessness. The light 
did indeed glare with a wild and terrific splendor ; 
yet, as it waved round the continent of Europe, 
its beams reached the furthest kingdoms and start- 
led tyranny in its securest recesses. Germany 
awakened as if to a new consciousness of being ; 
Poland caught a momentary hope of restoration ; 
Bohemia, Hungary, and the furthest East lifted 
up their heads and listened for a season to the 
strains that told of independence, before they re- 
lapsed again into their ancient lethargy. 

A permanent consequence of the French revo- 
lution has been, the establishment of representa- 
tive governments in some of the states of Europe. 
France may modify her institutions, but never will 
resign them ; the free states of Germany may be 
overawed by surrounding power, and so fail of 
developing their public life by the strict rules of 
liberty; but they will never part with their politi- 
cal knowledge. You might as well endeavor to 



9 

tear the plough fr6m their peasant!-} , as the prin- 
ciples of freedom from their intelligent men. But 
whatever may be the chances, that popular sove- 
reignty will finally prevail in Europe, that conti- 
nent is no longer to the world what she once was. 
She has fulfilled her high destiny ; she has been 
for many centuries the sole depositary and guar- 
dian of all that is most valuable in government, 
letters, and invention, in present enjoyment and 
religious hope. But human culture has at length 
been transplanted to other climes, and already 
grown to a more beautiful maturity. Whatever 
destiny may hang over Europe, mankind is safe. 
Intelligence and religion have found another home ; 
not only in our own free states, the cross is plant- 
ed on each side the Andes, and the rivers which 
empty into either ocean fertilize the abodes of 
civilization. 

A more admirable and cheering spectacle, there- 
fore, than Europe can offer, is exhibiting in our 
own hemisphere. A family of free states has at 
once come into being, and already flourishes on 
a soil, which till now had been drooping under 
colonial thraldom. Our happiness is increased by 
the wide diffusion of the blessings of free institu- 
tions ; and it is a pleasing consciousness, that the 
example of our Fathers taught these new repub- 
lics, what were their rights, and how they might 
assert them. Their final success we regard as 
certain, believing that the freedom of inquiry and 
of action will ensure the triumph of reason and 
the establishment of wise constitutions. Be it that 
the new aspirants after liberty are impeded by the 
2 



10 

relics of colonial bondage ; the influence of perni- 
cious forms, which rested for support on the do- 
minion of the mother countr}, cannot long survive 
the end of that dominion ; be it that the literature 
of Spain contains no eloquent exposition of the 
principles of liberty ; they will find a good inter- 
preter of them in their own breasts ; be it that 
clear views of public economy and administration 
are not yet commonly diffused ; the people soon 
learn to understand their interests, and to devise 
the best means of advancing them ; be it that their 
religion partakes of bigotry and an exclusive spirit; 
bigotry will yield to light, and far be it from us to 
condemn wantonly a form of Christianity, which is 
adopted by half the Christian world ; be it that 
their social life has not yet assumed a form, cor- 
responding with their political condition ; the nat- 
ural operation of civil equality and the success of 
unrestricted enterprise will remove all injurious 
distinctions ; be it that they are taunted with ex- 
travagance and denounced as drunk with liberty ; 
it is a very safe intoxication and would to God all 
the nations of the earth might drink deeply of that 
cup ; be it that they have consistently practised 
in the faith of man's natural equality ; there is no 
reason to apprehend a confusion of justice from 
those who guarantee the rights of all the members 
of their community ; and, finally, be it that they 
who are now beginning to enjoy free constitutions, 
are partly of mixt descent ; will you not all coin- 
cide with me when I say, we feel for man, not for 
a single race of men, and wherever liberty finds 
followers, as wherever Christ has disciples, be it 



11 

that English or Indian, Spanish or African blood 
pours in their veins, we greet them as brethren. 

I have glanced at the leading events in the his- 
tory of the last half-century, and their aspect on 
the progress of Jkn, free institutions. Time will 
not permit, nor does our purpose lead us to enu- 
merate all the states which were doomed to per- 
ish, or those which were to rise from their ruins. 
No so short period of history ever presented so 
many or so mighty revolutions, such grand dis- 
plays of national force ; armies so numerous and 
yet so well disciplined; battles so skilfully con- 
ducted and decisive of such vast interests. The 
stream of time, which flowed through so many of 
the past centuries with a lazy current, has at last 
rushed onwards with overwhelming fury, leaping 
down one precipice after another, destroymg all 
barriers in its ungovernable swiftness, hurrying 
states and empires and nations along its current, 
while the master minds were driven they knew 
not whither, on waters through which they vainly 
endeavored to direct their course. 

The age has been fertile in strange contrasts, 
in unforeseen and unparalleled events. Europe 
is filled with the shadows of departed states and 
the graves of ruined republics. In the North, an 
adventurer of fortune has succeeded to the Swed- 
ish throne, and the legitimate king lives quietly in 
exile ; while in the rest of Europe the doctrine of 
the divine right has been revived. Rome was 
once more made the head of a republic ; the secu- 
lar power of the Pope, annihilated for a season, 
was restored by the help of Turks, Russians, and 



12 

English, Infidels, Schismatics, and Heretics. An 
army of Europeans, having in its train a band of 
scientific men, pitched its victorious camp at the 
foot of the Pyramids ; the solitary banks of the 
Nile again became the tempwiSRry abode of glory 
and civilization ; and again the bands of armed 
men poured through the hundred gates of the long 
deserted Thebes. An empire, which sends its 
caravans into Tartary and China, exerts its influ- 
ence in Paris and Madrid, and has its envoy at 
Washington. The whole East has been a scene 
of continued turbulence, till at last a corporation 
of merchants, residing in a distant island, has re- 
duced seventy millions of people to subjection. 
And, finally, to notice a singular fact in our own 
history, he, whose eloquent pen gave freedom its 
charter in the declaration of our independence ; h«, 
who was the third to receive the greatest honor 
ever awarded by public suffrage ; he, who in the 
course of his administration doubled the extent of 
our territory by a peaceful treaty ; he, whose prin- 
ciples are identified with the character of our gov- 
ernment, and whose influence with the progress of 
civil liberty throughout the world, after declining 
to be a third time elected to the highest station in 
the service of his country, has not preserved on 
his retirement, I will not say fortune enough to 
bury him with honor, has not saved the means of 
supporting the decline of life with decency. 

The system of states, now united by diplomatic 
relations or commerce, embraces the world. The 
productions and the manufactures of all climes, 
the advances of intelligence and all useful inven- 



13 

tions, are made universal benefits; the thoughts. pt 
superior men. find their way over every ocean and 
through every country ; civilization has its mes- 
sengers in all parts of the world, and there is a 
community of feeling among the lovers of truth, 
however widely their abodes may be separated. 

And in this system of states an experiment is 
simultaneously making of the most various forms 
of government and all within the reach of mutual 
observation. While the United States show to 
what condition a nation is carried by establishing 
a government strictly national, we have in Russia 
and in Hayti examples of a military despotism ; in 
England a preponderating aristocracy ; in France 
a monarchy with partial limitations ; in Prussia an 
absolute monarchy, yet dependent for its strength 
on the spirit of the people ; in Naples the old- 
fashioned system of absolute caprice. Let men 
reason if they will on the different systems of gov- 
ernment ; the history of the age is showing from 
actual experiment which of them best promotes 
the ends of the social compact. 

Thought has been active in our times, not with 
speculative questions ; but in devising means for 
improving the social condition. Efforts have been 
made to diffuse Christianity throughout the world. 
The cannibal of the South Sea forgets his horrid 
purpose and listens to the instructions of religion : 
the light of the Sabbath morn is welcomed by the 
mild inhabitants of the Pacific islands ; and Africa 
and Australasia have not remained unvisited. Col- 
onies, which were first established on the Guinea 
coast for the traffic in slaves, have been renewed 



14 

for the more effectual suppression of that accursed 
trade. A curiosity, which will not rest unsatisfied, 
perseveres in visiting the unknown parts of the 
earth ; the oceans have been so carefully explored 
by skilful navigators, that we are well acquainted 
with all their currents and their paths ; and the 
regions, which lie furthest from the ancient abodes 
of civilization, have at last received its colonies. 

Not only the advancement of knowledge char- 
acterizes the age, but its wide diffusion throughout 
all classes of society. The art of printing, which 
has been in use less than four hundred years and 
which, vast as its influence has already been, is 
just beginning to show how powerfully it can op- 
erate on society, offers such means of extending 
knowledge, that national education becomes every 
where possible ; and while before this invention 
it was impracticable to impart literary culture but 
to a few, the elements of science can now be made 
universally accessible. 

The facts, to which I have rapidly alluded, show 
a gradual amelioration of the human condition and 
the more complete developement of the social vir- 
tues. And where is it, that the hopes of philan- 
thropy are most nearly realized } I turn from the 
consideration of foreign revolutions to our own 
condition, and meet with nothing but what may 
animate our joy and increase our hopes. The vi- 
sions of patriotism fall short of the reality. He, 
who observes the air of cheerful industry and suc- 
cessful enterprise, the sobriety of order, the in- 
creasing wealth of our cities, the increasing pro- 
ductiveness of our lands, our streams crowded with 



15 

new establishments, and the appearance of entire 
success, stamped on every part of our country, 
will yet be amazed at the offici|il documents, in 
which the el'ements of this success are analyzed, 
and its amount made the subject of cool calcu- 
lation. , 

In whatever direction we turn our eyes, we find 
one unclouded scene of prosperity, every where 
marks of advancement and increasing opulence. 
While the population of the United States is doub- 
led in less than twenty four years, its capital is 
doubled in less than eleven. At the beginning of 
the war the manufactures of the country could 
hardly be said to have had any considerable value ; 
during the last twelve-month the value of goods 
manufactured in the United States has probably 
exceeded three hundred millions of dollars. The 
commerce of the country soon after the revolution 
extended, it is true, to every important mart, 
though it was but the first effort of a nation with- 
out capital ; but now, when a large part of the 
commerce of the world is done by American mer- 
chants, our internal commerce surpasses our for- 
eign even in tonnage, and still more in its value to 
the nation. Our thriving agriculture gives an air 
of magnificence to our lands, and, after supplying 
our domestic wants, leaves a large surplus for ex- 
portation. All our rural towns have an aspect of 
ease and comfort and prosperity. On our sea- 
board the wealth and population are advancing 
with a rapidity, surpassing the most sanguine Ex- 
pectations ; and the prospect, that lies before us, 
seems too brilliant to be realized, when we observe 



i6 

a city like New York, already one of the largest 
on earth, and yet so new, its crowded wharves, its 
splendid walk by the ocean-side, its gay and busy 
streets so remarkable for the beautiful neatness of 
the buildings ; its industry ; its moral order ; and 
its rapid growth, proceeding from causes that still 
operate with undiminished force. 

These grand results are visible in the oldest 
part of our country, where the trees are older than 
the settlements, and men are older than the bridges 
and the roads. The changes in the West are 
known to be still more amazing. The hunter finds 
his way through a fertile region, and hardly has 
his good report been heard, before it is gemmed 
with villages ; and all the intelligence and comforts 
of cultivated life are at once introduced into the 
new haunts of civilization. The voice of Christian 
worship is heard to rise from crowded assemblies 
in regions, which have been first visited within our 
memories. Domestic trade is extending itself in 
every direction ; steam-boats ascend even the most 
rapid rivers, whose banks have been but recently 
explored, and as they pass through the lonely 
scenes, now first enlivened by the echoes of social 
cheerfulness, the venerable antiquity of nature 
bends from her awful majesty, and welcomes the 
fearless emigrant to the solitudes, where the earth 
has for centuries been hoarding fertility. 

I have spoken to you of the condition of our 
country at large ; I have called on you to observe 
its general prosperity. I will now limit the sphere 
of our view ; I will ask you to look around at your 
own fields and firesides : your own business and 



17 

prospects. There is not one desirable privilege, 
which we do not enjoy ; there is not one social 
advantage, that reason can covet, which is not ours. 
I speak not merely of our equal rights to engage 
in any pursuit, that promises emolument or honor; 
I speak, also, of the advantages which we are al- 
ways enjoying ; security in our occupations ; lib- 
erty of conscience ; the certain rewards of labor. 
While there is general ease, the distribution of 
wealth has led to no great inequalities ; all our in- 
terests are thriving ; the mechanic arts are exer- 
cised with successful skill ; improved means of 
communication with the sea-board are opening to 
our trade ; the waters of our abundant streams are 
continually applied to new branches of business ; 
an equal interchange of kindness is the general 
custom ; moral order pervades an industrious pop- 
ulation ; intelligence is diffused among our yeo- 
manry ; the plough is in the hands of its owner ; 
and the neat aspect of our farm-houses proves 
them the abode of contentment and successful dil- 
igence. Nor are we without our recollections. I 
never can think without reverence of the spirited 
veteran, who, on the morning of the seventeenth 
of June, in the seventieth year of his age, was 
hastening on horseback as a volunteer to Bunker 
Hill ; but, coming to Charlestown neck and find- 
ing the fire from the British ships so severe, that 
crossing was extremely dangerous, coolly sent back 
the animal which he had borrowed of a friend, and, 
shouldering his musket, marched over on foot. 
When the Americans saw him approach they rais- 
3 



18 

ed a shout, and the name of Pomeroy ran along 
the lines. Since the ashes of the gallant soldier 
do not rest among us, let us the more do honor to 
his memory. We have raised a simple monument 
to his name in our grave-yard ; but his body re- 
poses, where he breathed out life on his country's 
service, in the maturity of years, and yet a martyr. 
Even before that time and before the hour of im- 
mediate danger, when the boldest spirits might 
have wavered in gloomy uncertainty, and precious 
moments were wastmg in indecision, one of our 
own citizens, my friends, his memory is still fresh 
among us, had been the first to cry in a voice, 
which was heard beyond the Potomac, we must 
fight ; and when some alternative was desired, and 
reconciliation hoped from inactivity and delay, 
clearly saw the absolute necessity of the case, and 
did but repeat, we must fight. It was in front of 
the very place, where we are now assembled, that 
the hearts of our Fathers were cheered and their 
resolution confirmed by the eloquence of Hawley. 
And what is the cause and the guarantee of our 
happiness ? What but the principles of our consti- 
tution. When our fathers assembled to prepare 
it, the genius of history admitted them to the se- 
crets of destiny, and taught tliem by the failures 
of the past to provide for the happiness of future 
generations. No model was offered them, which 
it seemed safe to imitate ; the constitution estab- 
lished a government on entirely liberal principles, 
such as the world had never beheld in practice. 



19 

The sovereicjnty of the people is the basis ot 
the system. With the people the power resides, 
both theoretically and practically. The govern- 
ment is a democracy, a determined, uncompromis- 
ing democracy ; administered immediately by the 
people, or by the people's responsible agents. In 
all the European treatises on Political Economy 
and even in the state-papers of the holy alliance, 
the welfare of the people is acknowledged to be 
the object of government. We believe so too ; 
but as each man's interests are safest in his own 
keeping, so in like manner the interests of the 
people can best be guarded by themselves. If 
the institution of monarchy were neither tyrannical 
nor oppressive, it should at least be dispensed 
with, as a costly superfl lity. 

We believe the sovereign power should reside 
equally amona; the people. We acknowledge no 
hereditary distinctions and we confer on no man 
prerogatives, or peculiar privileges. Even the best 
services, rendered the state, cannot destroy this 
original and essential equality. Legislation and 
justice are not hereditary offices ; no one is born 
to power, no one dandled into political greatness. 
Our government, as it rests for support on reason 
and our interests, needs no protection from a no- 
bility ; and the strength and ornament of the land 
consist in its industry and morality, its justice and 
intelligence. 

The states of Europe are all intimately allied 
with the church and fortified by religious sanc- 
tions. We approve of the influence of the reli- 



20 

gious principle on public not less than on private 
life ; but we hold religion to be an affair between 
each individual conscience and God, superior to 
all political institutions and independent of them. 
Christianity was neither introduced nor reformed 
by the civil power; and with us the modes of 
worship are in no wise prescribed by the state. 

Thus then the people governs, and solely ; it 
does not divide its power with a hierarchy, a no- 
bility, or a king. The popular voice is all power- 
ful with us ; this is our oracle ; this, we acknowl- 
edge, is the voice of God. Invention is solitary ; 
but who shall judge of its results ? Inquiry may 
pursue truth apart ; but who shall decide, if truth 
is overtaken ? There is no safe criterion of opinion 
but the careful exercise of the public judgment ; 
and in the science of government as elsewhere, 
the deliberate convictions of mankind, reasonino- 
on the cause of their own happiness, their own 
wants and interests, are the surest revelations of 
political truth. 

The interests of the people are the interests of 
the individuals, who compose the people. If we 
needed no general government for our private suc- 
cess and happiness, we should have adopted none. 
It is created to supply a want and a deficiency ; 
it is simply a corporation, invested with limited 
powers for accomplishing specific purposes. 

Government is based upon population, not upon 
property. If they, who possess the wealth, pos- 
sessed the power also, they would legislate in such 
a way, as to preserve that wealth and power ; and 



21 

this would tend to an aristocracy. We hold it best, 
that the laws should favor the diffusion of property 
and its easy acquisition, not the concentration of it 
in the hands of a few to the impoverishment of the 
many. We give the power to the many, in the 
hope and to the end, that they may use it for their 
own benefit ; that they may always so legislate, as 
to open the fairest career to industry, and promote 
an equality founded on the safe and equitable in- 
fluence of the laws. We do not fear, we rather 
invite the operation of the common motives, which 
influence humanity. If the emperor of Austria 
takes care to do nothing against his trade as a king, 
if the Pope administers his affairs with reference 
to his own advantage and that of the Romish 
church, if the English Aristocracy provides for 
the secure succession of hereditary wealth and 
power ; so too we hope, where the power resides 
with the many, that the many will be sure to 
provide for themselves ; magistrates be taken from 
the bosom of the people to which they return ; 
the rights of those who have acquired property 
sacredly regarded ; the means of acquiring it made 
common to all ; industry receive its merited hon- 
ors ; morality be preserved ; knowledge univer- 
sally diffused ; and the worth of naked humanity 
duly respected and encouraged. 

The laws of the land are sacred ; they are es- 
tablished by the majority for the general good. 
Private rights are sacred ; the protection of them 
is the end of law and government. When the 
rules of justice are trampled on, or the power of 



22 

maintaining it wrested from the hands of its ap- 
pointed guardians, there is tyranny, let it be done 
where and by whom it may, in the old world or 
in the new, by a monarch or by a mob. Liberty 
frowns on such deeds, as attacks on her safety. 
For liberty knows nothing of passion ; she is the 
daughter of God, and dwells in unchanging tran- 
quillity beside his throne ; her serene countenance 
is never ruffled by excitement ; reason and justice 
are the pillars of her seat, and truth and virtue the 
angels that minister unto her. When j^ou come 
with violence and angry fury, do you pretend to 
come in her name ? In vain ; she is not there ; 
even now she has escaped from among you. 

Thus then our government is strictly national, 
having its origin in the will of the people, its ob- 
ject in their happiness, its guarantee in their mo- 
rality ; a government, essentially radical, in so far 
as it aims to facilitate the prompt reform of abuses ; 
and essentially levelling, as it prohibits hereditary 
distinctions, and tends to diminish artificial ones. 

Our government is called weak and said to rest 
on an insecure foundation ; while in truth it is es- 
tablished on the firmest. It is the deliberate pre- 
ference of all its citizens ; and, self-balanced, rests 
securely on its own strength. Our confidence in 
its durability is equal to our confidence, that the 
people will always find such a system for their in- 
terests ; and that liberty and intelligence will al- 
ways be respected by a majority of mankind. 
The will of the people created our constitution ; 
and not prescriptive right, not the condescension 



2S 

of an individual, not the terrors of religion, as in- 
terpreted b} a priesthood, not the bayonets of a 
standing army, not the duplicity of diplomatic 
chicanery, not the lure of mitres, coronets, and ar- 
tificial distinctions, — the wisdom of the people is 
our only, our sufficient, constitutional frank-pledge. 
Our moral condition is, then, indeed superior to 
that of the old world in the present, or in any for- 
mer age. We have institutions more free, more 
just, and more beneficent, than have ever before 
been established. And that our glory as a nation 
might in nothing be wanting, the men, to whom 
the people first confided their interests, they, whose 
names stand highest in the annals of our glory, 
the statesmen, by whose voice the pure spirit of 
the country expressed its desires, the leaders, by 
whose bravery and skill our citizens were con- 
ducted to success in the contest for their rights, 
were of undoubted integrity and spotless patriot- 
ism, men, in whom the elements of human great- 
ness were so happily mixed, that as their princi- 
ples were generous and elevated, so their lives 
were distinguished by a course of honorable ac- 
tion, and the sacrifice of private advantage to the 
public good. They united the fervor of genius 
with the magnanimity of character ; and the lustre 
of their brilliant career was tempered by the re- 
publican simplicity of their manners. The names 
of Washington and Franklin recur, as often as ex- 
amples are sought of enlightened philanthropy 
and a virtue, almost superhuman. The political 
privileges of the people correspond with the moral 



24 

greatness of our illustrious men. Greece and Rome 
can offer no parallel to the one or the other. In 
possession of complete personal independence, our 
religious liberty is entire ; our press without re- 
strictions ; the channels of wealth and honor alike 
open to all ; the cause of intelligence asserted and 
advanced by the people ; in our houses, our church- 
es, our halls of justice, our legislatures, everywhere 
there is liberty. The sublimest views of superior 
minds are here but homely truths, reduced to prac- 
tice, and shedding a beneficent influence over all 
the daily operations of life. Soul is breathed into 
the public administration by the suffrages of the 
people, and the aspect of our policy on the world 
is favorable to universal improvement. The dear- 
est interests of mankind were entrusted to our 
country ; it was for her to shew, that the aspira- 
tions of former ages were not visionary ; that free- 
dom is something more than a name ; that the pat- 
riots and the states, that have been martyrs in its 
defence, were struggling in a sacred cause and fell 
in the pursuit of a real good. The great spirits of 
former times looked down from their celestial 
abodes to cheer and encourage her in the hour of 
danger ; the nations of the earth turned towards 
her as to their last hope. And the country has 
not deceived them. With unwavering consistency 
she has pursued the general good and confirmed 
the national sovereignty ; she has joined a decided 
will to a clear perception of her rights and duties ; 
she has had courage to regulate her course by free 
principles, wherever they might guide ; and has 



25 

proclaimed them to the world as with the voice 
of an inspired man. Resolutely developing her 
resources and perfecting her establishments by the 
light of her own experience, she stands in the eye 
of Heaven and the world in all the comeliness and 
strength of youth, yet swayed by a spirit of mature 
wisdom, exemplifying in her public capacity the 
virtues and generous affections of human nature, a 
light to the world, an example to those who would 
be free, already the benefactress of humanit}^, the 
tutelary angel of liberty. She advances in her 
course with the energy of rectitude and the calm- 
ness of justice. Liberty is her device ; liberty is 
her glory ; liberty is the American policy. This 
diffuses its blessings throughout all our land ; this 
is cherished in our hearts, dearer than life and 
dear as honor ; this is imbedded in our soil more 
firmly than the ancient granite in our moun- 
tains ; this has been bequeathed to us by our fa- 
thers ; and, whatever may befall us, we will trans- 
mit the heritage unimpaired to the coming gen- 
eration. 

Our service began with God. May we not be- 
lieve, that He, who promises assistance to the 
humblest of us in our efforts to do His will, re- 
gards with complacency the advancement of the 
nation, and now from his high abode smiles on us 
with favoring benignity. Trusting in the Provi- 
dence of Him, the Universal Father, let the coun- 
try advance to the glory and prosperity, to which, 
mindful of its exalted privileges, it aspires ; wher- 
ever its voice is heard, let it proclaim the message 
4 



26 

of liberty, and speak with the divine energy of 
truth ; be the principles of moral goodness con- 
sistently followed in its actions ; and while the 
centuries, as they pass, multiply its population 
and its resources, let it manifest in its whole his- 
tory a devoted attachment to public virtue, a dear 
affection for mankind, and the consciousness of its 
responsibility to the God of nations. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Y' \ 



